R define dimensions of empty data frame

Question

I am trying to collect some data from multiple subsets of a data set and need to create a data frame to collect the results. My problem is don\'t know how to create an empt

Answer 1

I have come across the same problem and have a cleaner solution. Instead of creating an empty data.frame you can instead save your data as a named list. Once you have added all results to this list you convert it to a data.frame after.

For the case of adding features one at a time this works best.

mylist = list()
for(column in 1:10) mylist$column = rnorm(10)
mydf = data.frame(mylist)

For the case of adding rows one at a time this becomes tricky due to mixed types. If all types are the same it is easy.

mylist = list()
for(row in 1:10) mylist$row = rnorm(10)
mydf = data.frame(do.call(rbind, mylist))

I haven't found a simple way to add rows of mixed types. In this case, if you must do it this way, the empty data.frame is probably the best solution.